Walter Karig

"Walter Karig (1898–1956) was a prolific author, who served as a U.S. navalcaptain. Karig authored a number of military history works on Allied naval operations during World War II. Karig wrote scripts for the television series Victory at Sea. Besides his works on naval history, Karig was a novelist, publishing under his own name. He also worked as a journalist.

Among Karig's many novels is Zotz! (1947), a satirical story dealing with an archaeologist and linguist, Dr. John Jones. After deciphering an inscription on an ancient disk, Jones is imbued with deadly powers. For Jones can merely point at an animal or human, and they faint. If he utters the word "Zotz" while pointing his finger, the person or animal will die. Because the novel is set duringWorld War II, there is a patriotic flavor to it. Also, much of the plot revolves around Jones' efforts to obtain an appointment to see President Franklin Roosevelt, with the hope that he can convince the President that the Allies can use his supernatural abilities to help the war effort. Karig has written himself into the novel as a beleaguered navalofficer working at a U.S. Navy public information office, where dozens of people parade by his desk daily all trying to obtain appointments to meet with the "highest authority" in the United States government. Although Karig's novel is set the then present, he manages to point out that humans have not changed much in millennia. Technology may have improved, but humans still have a strong desire to destroy and to kill. Thus Karig manages to blend a satire on wartime Washington D.C. bureaucracy with ethical questions related to the advent of the nuclear war."

J.Algot Eriksson

J.Algot Eriksson's bookplate was purchased on Ebay and I do not know very much about it.Additional information would be appreciated.Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Garrett Chatfield Pier

"1875-1943) US author of Hanit the Enchantress (1921), in which a Yale expedition to Egypt discovers what seems to be a Lost World, into the heart of which the lead of the expedition plunges by Timeslip, where he falls in love with the spitting image of the twentieth century woman to whom he is betrothed. "

That's about all for now..See you soon

Sunday, September 21, 2014

It's been a productive weekend. On Friday I visited The Rittenhouse Art Show.
I went because Marina Terauds exhibits there. More often than not I buy one of her bookplates.
I was first made aware of this very talented artist ten years ago when I exchanged duplicates with fellow collector Jo Ann Pari-Mueller. This is the bookplate I received in the exchange .

This was Jo Ann's description "Marina Terauds was born in Russia,but lives in Michigan now.She was delightful to work with.I wanted a "Collector's Cabinet" theme with my stuff in it,and she did a great job expertly creating the "vision".

The bookplate I purchased at the show is quite different from her usual work.It is a whimsical tribute to the owner Uldus Terauds who is a balloonist and hang glider enthusiast..

On Saturday I visited an antique show and came away with some leather bookplates used by notable American book collectors.I currently have for exchange some duplicates of the leather bookplate used by the American banker and collector J.P.Morgan .

Mystery Bookplate

Does anyone out there know who was the owner of this leather plate?
While on the subject of mystery bookplates I want to encourage you to send your scans for possible identification to Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
Earlier in the week fellow collector Richard Schimmelpfeng inquired about the identification of the artist who did this bookplate.

I contacted fellow collector Michael Kunze and he promptly responded as follows:

"The signature should indicate the German painter Julius Köhnholz (Bremen 1839 -
1925 Bremen), who had ties to the city of Kassel ("Cassel" before 1920) where he
also had an exhibition. His name isn't mentioned in the bookplate references I have at hand.
The "Kunsthalle Bremen", a nationwide known art museum in
Bremen, publishes a biography of Julius Köhnholz (or Koehnholz) in the net. It seems Köhnholz was a well known and quite successful
realistic painter, preferring motives / subjects showing mountains, rivers, and
ships at sea. He loved dramatic contrasts /light(darkness)."

Monday, September 15, 2014

I attended the First Brooklyn Book and Antiques show on Saturday .The booths were well stocked , the promoter did a bang up job of promoting and I met five dealers who have "bookplates back at home"..I always follow-up these leads and keep my fingers crossed.
The most interesting item I found was not a bookplate. It is a New Haven ,Connecticut tavern receipt from the early 19th century.I am gathering information about the Tavern and the owner Justus Butler
and will write more about it when my research is completed.

I've accumulated quite a few early 19th century library by -laws notices over the years and found this one at the show..Does anyone out there know which institution used the letters S.M.C.T.A.L.?

I assume the last two letters are for Association Library..If you have similar items and want them added to this posting please send a scan to Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

I scanned everything in my own collection and welcome additional scans

I made the following pencil notation on the back of The Newport Label
See The History of Newport from 1766 to 1878 Chapter XX , charter granted to Hubbard Newton in 1803

The Phillips Academy label is not about By-Laws but I included it because I would like more information about it.. By the way, when you are digging around book shops and not finding very much be sure to ask the seller if he has a box of old detached boards.Sometimes you can find some really nice bookplates in such boxes.

"The Philadelphia Typographical Society was organ-
ized in 1802, and enjoys the distinction of being the old-
est existing organization of the craft. Up to 1831 it
existed as both a benevolent and a trade society, as was
the rule among the early societies. In 1831 it became a
purely benevolent association."

A Good Source for Obtaining Bookplates

Illustrated
here is the early 19th century plain armorial bookplate inscribed Genl. Despard
(F.8522) . The shield, with an unusually
leafy surround, bears the arms of Despard impaling Hesketh. The marriage of John
Despard (1743/4–1829), Irish-born army officer and colonial administrator, to
Harriot Anne (1772–1848), daughter of Thomas Hesketh and Jacintha Dalrymple, and
the sister of Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, third baronet, of Rufford Hall,
Lancashire, took place in 1793, but this bookplate probably dates to no earlier
than 1814, the year in which he was promoted general. By that time he had
already been long in retirement, having returned to England from North America
in 1807. Burke’s General Armory gives us no help with the heraldry, but
the broken lance in the canton and the motto Pugno both signal the arms
of a career soldier.

Born
in Ireland and baptized on 4 August 1744 at St Peter and St Kevin in Dublin, he
was the fifth of six sons of William and Jane Despard, and brother of Edward
Marcus Despard. John first saw action at age 16 in Germany during the Seven
Years’ War as ensign in the 12th Foot, but most of the 24 engagements in which
he took part were in the period 1773-83 during the American Revolution. That is why I purchased it.I am interested in the bookplates of American Loyalists who fled to Canada or back to England as well as English officers who fought in the revolution. During this time he was captured and exchanged, and as major he organized Lord
Rawdon's new loyalist corps, the Volunteers of Ireland. Colonel in 1795 and
major-general from mid-1798, he accepted in 1799 the post of military commander
and civil administrator of the colony of Cape Breton (Nova Scotia). The
frustrations of this role and declining health, probably exacerbated by his
brother Maurice’s execution for treason, prompted his leaving for England in
1807. He died at Swan Hill, Oswestry, from ‘ulcerated intestines’ and was buried
there in St Oswald's churchyard. History records him as a distinguished,
resourceful, and brave soldier who demonstrated surprising governing abilities,
all undertaken with a ‘mild and cheerful disposition’. A fuller account of his
life can be found in the Oxford DNB.

I purchased the bookplate on Ebay, but my preferred source is the members auctions of The Bookplate Society. There have
been two such auctions this year, and more are in the pipeline for
October and December. They typically attract postal and email bids from 30-40
members .There’s a good range of British (and sometimes other) material available. Successful bids from outside the UK can be paid through PayPal. Members also get two high-quality 72-page issues of The Bookplate Journal each year, plus
newsletters, and a book every two years. The book for 2015/16 will be about the
bookplates of dukes, and is entitled Strawberry Leaves. Annual membership
costs $65

Another reason to join The Bookplate Society

The
October auction has now been uploaded to the Society’s website at www.bookplatesociety.org/membersarea.htm
where the listing and scans of all the bookplates on offer can be viewed online.
An early deadline of 24 September means that members have less than 3
weeks to enter bids

Theatrical Bookplates

The Lynn and Alfred Lunt bookplate is a welcome addition to my theatrical bookplate collection.
It was designed in 1946 by Richard Whorf .Hewas an American actor, author, director, and designer and collaborated with the Lunts.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a an excellent blog posting about computer security by Dr.Steven Solomon

Lawyers and doctors are just two professions that are required to secure information. For lawyers it is the Model Rules that tell us to keep client information confidential while for doctors and others in the medical community information is required to be kept secure through HIPAA and State Law. For any profession or business to run smoothly and successfully communication needs to be paramount. However, many forms of communication, e-mail, text messaging and Instant Messaging, while convenient are not secure for most people. Using these forms of communication to transmit sensitive information can result in a breach which may then entail heavy fines, mandatory training for you and your staff, credit monitoring for those individuals affected, not to mention the cost of the potential lawsuits for the breach.

The remainder of this article will focus on secure apps for texting and Instant Messaging for the legal professional and non health care industry as HIPAA has specific requirements that are needed to prevent a violation.

It should be noted that nothing can be claimed to be 100% secure. The best that one can hope for is that the security makes it too difficult for most anyone to breach. For effective security both the sender and recipient have to be on the same encryption system. For simplicity sake think of both parties needing to speak English rather than one party who only speaks Spanish. Getting the sender and recipient to use the program/app/software is one of the biggest hurdles in secure communication.

There are numerous companies that produce a wide array of products so you must do the proper research to determine which would work best for you and those you communicate with. Some businesses may want a log of all of their communications while others may not care. A decision should be made with your Privacy Officer as to what is best.

Texting Apps

BBM (Black Berry Messenger) is probably one of the most well known services for secure communication. Most smart phones have an app available for download. Messages are first encrypted on the senders phone before being sent to the recipient where it is then unencrypted. Each message is encrypted with the same “key” which means that in the unlikely event that someone is able to break the encryption, they would be able to see all of the conversations that you had with that recipient. For those requiring additional security or just more paranoid, Black Berry is releasing in 2004 eBBM (Enterprise Black Berry Messaging). Each message sent will have its own unique encryption key which means that only that one message can be compromised if the encryption is broken.

Wickr is one of the new class of messaging apps that besides allowing you to send encrypted text but also has a self destruct for the message. This is available for Android and iPhone. The company claims that messages are “forensically wiped” upon expiration and that they do not store the message on their servers.

Invisible Text also allows for “self destruction” of messages. Once the message is read by the recipient a timer starts that will then delete the message once the countdown is complete.

Silent Textis from Silent Circle, the company behind the Black Phone. The founders have a good reputation for protecting your privacy. One of the founders is Phil Zimmerman, the creator of Pretty Good Privacy. In order to use this app you must be a subscriber to Silent Circle. Texts can be deleted from both your phone and the other phone you are communicating with. The encryption and the way the company handles sending messages appear to be top notch. Also available as part of your subscription is the ability to make encrypted phone calls to other users.

Instant Messaging

Not every communication is between mobile devices. Many use the Computer to “chat” or Computer to Mobile Device. These Instant Messages (IMs) are not considered secure by default.

Off-The-Record (OTR)is the encryption protocol that can be used for these communications. It can also be used with your mobile device.

The following are a list of clients with the system that they can be used with: